In Weights, Manning talks about the last thing he ever saw — literally, but happily, not figuratively — the barrel of a .32 automatic. Throughout the piece, he recounts his life before and after that event, growing up in South Central L.A. and evolves from painter to poet when his eyesight is stolen by a gunshot wound.

Manning is a Drama-Logue and Ovation Award winner. His plays include Private Battle, Central Avenue Chalk Circle, On the Brink and Visitations. Manning is in his third year as an artist-in-residence with the Mark Taper Forum's Other Voices Project, a theatre program for the disabled and visually impaired.